Nice critique of depiction of lava in video games:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LavaIsBoilingKoolAid

TLDR: most artists think that lava is just a hot red-colored water and characters can walk near it without harm, while in reality lava is a molten iron - a very dense viscous fluid, that will burn through everything, set on fire nearby things, and would keep afloat even heavy objects.

So you have to paint and animate lava differently from water and make sure normal flesh and bone characters dont get near it without special equipment. I.e. no caustics on the bottom of the lava pool, because lava doesn't pass light, and even more it emits its own light